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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27223108">Saintlike</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/svtxn/pseuds/svtxn'>svtxn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Christmas Fluff, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Relationships, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Torture, Lots of Angst, M/M, Slow Burn, a rewrite of the last few movies/books, drarry fluff and possible smut idk, forgive me if i mess up, possible deaths, possible suicide or tw for dark moments, possibly the slowest burn i may ever do</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:34:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,154</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27223108</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/svtxn/pseuds/svtxn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Questioning himself on why he would even care about that ferret -- what if Malfoy is the key to stopping the Dark Lord?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Draco Malfoy &amp; Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Heavy Shoulders</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sound of the train beating against its own tracks rung through Harry's head like a drum.</p><p>His head was racing with thoughts and confusion. Over and over the scene at Borgin &amp; Burkes replayed in his head.</p><p>"Malfoy.." Harry muttered subconsciously. Malfoy had dragged his fingertips over the cabinet like it was his lover, it mesmerized Harry, to say the least. Gentle but so intrigued by the object he seemed so very interested in. No way was he just window shopping, Malfoy was being obviously odd. Something his friends, however, did not see.</p><p>"Harry you need to stop thinking so loud, honestly," Hermione sighed to herself. Her arms crossed as she also was staring off out the window. Ron had fallen fast asleep, clutching his own excess luggage like a pillow. </p><p>Harry grinned in embarrassment, he could not understand why his friends did not see anything suspicious about Malfoy. Hermione was making sure Harry wasn't going around bad-mouthing Malfoy to everyone, he didn't care to bad-mouth the Slytherin, he really just wanted to make sure he wasn't planning something dangerous. He had given them all the arguments he could think of to convince them to keep an eye on him, they only decided to call him obsessive.</p><p>His thoughts began to trail off to Malfoy alone, and the idea that he might be able to watch him closely without his friends' help. </p><p>"Excuse me while I visit the toilet," Harry breathed out quickly as he shuffled out of his train cubby. The hall was filled with conversating students who paid no mind to Harry as he carefully slipped on his invisibility cloak.</p><p>As he approached the end of the train's hall he spotted a few Slytherins sitting together. "Malfoy..." Harry whispered to himself again, now habit. As if the blonde could hear him, he turned towards Harry. Harry wasn't even sure if he had put his cloak on until Malfoy turned back to Blaise to resume the conversation.</p><p>"Nevermind -- thought I heard something," Malfoy mumbled to his friends who paid no attention to his pause.</p><p>Harry let out a long breath and fit himself in the only spot he couldn't be found.</p><p>The train ride to Hogwarts was beyond uncomfortable for Harry, Malfoy seemed to keep quiet the entire time, occasionally giving his input on something Blaise would ask about. Malfoy had also left to the washroom for a moment, Harry now able to move about to a better position that seemed to go unoccupied for the entire ride.</p><p>By the time the train had reached its destination, Malfoy had returned, carefully grabbing his luggage and trailing behind his friends while Harry followed behind slowly. </p><p>The blonde stopped to shut the train's door.</p><p>"Potter, may I ask you why you've been following me?"</p><p>Harry was startled. At first, he thought about remaining hidden and making Malfoy think to himself that Harry was in fact not still with him, alone, on the train.</p><p>Slowly, however, Harry uncovered and wrapped the cloak up in his hand. His cheeks flushed with the embarrassment of being caught by Malfoy of all people. Harry thought about starting a fight with Malfoy, telling him about what he had seen earlier and what he suspected of the potential death eater. </p><p>Harry couldn't get a word out.</p><p>"It would do you good to stay away from me, don't want to end up with another ugly scar do you?" Draco flashed Harry a nasty look while reaching carefully for his pocket.</p><p>"<em>Stupefy</em>!" Harry hastily whipped out his wand, sending sparks through the air and towards the blonde.</p><p>Malfoy quickly ran for cover, bringing out his own wand to prepare a hex to hit Potter with.</p><p>"I know what you're up to Malfoy," Harry breathed out, visibly upset.</p><p>Malfoy let out a light laugh. "You don't know anything about me Potter, don't say things you don't mean," Malfoy flicked his wand out towards the direction Harry was in, another miss.</p><p>Harry shoved his wand in his pocket and let his legs carry him over to where Malfoy was hiding, jumping straight onto the blonde who almost screamed out in terror. Malfoy definitely did not expect such a move from Harry and his wand was knocked from his hand, now rolling across the floor of the train.</p><p>Harry's whole body was on top of Malfoy, pinning him down, his face was red with what Malfoy couldn't tell was anger or breathing problems. </p><p>"Get off me, Potter!" Malfoy struggled to move from under Harry. </p><p>"Tell me Malfoy, tell me what I know is true!"</p><p>"I don't know what you're talking about you git! Get off of me now!" Malfoy was unsure of what Harry could do to him now and almost feared for the worst until a sudden shake from the train alerted the two of another presence.</p><p>Loud steps approached when Harry was suddenly swatted in the back of the head.</p><p>"What business would you two have to be still on the train?" Snape sneered, looking back and forth between the two.</p><p>"Potter?" Snape gripped onto Harry's arm, dragging him off of the Slytherin. </p><p>Malfoy got up to grab his wand and shot Harry another nasty glare.</p><p>"He attacked me!" Malfoy had accused Harry who seemed to refuse that was what happened at all.</p><p>Snape swatted both of them at once.</p><p>"I do not care who started it, come with me. Both of you."</p><p>The two boys refused to look at each other and followed behind the elder teacher to the gates of the school. It was cold out, very much contrasting how it was just hours previously. The wind was blowing through their locks, Harry could have sworn he felt a drop of rain but he wasn't sure after a while.</p><p>Not long after they arrived, considerably late to the sorting ceremony that is, they passed through one of the many entrances into the school and Harry's eyes landed on a familiar face. Light locks bounced around as Luna seemed to be having a conversation with Neville about something particularly funny. Luna then caught hold of Harry's eyes as if he had called out to her, they shared a friendly grin but Snape quickly guided them down the halls. Harry reminded himself to find Luna later to catch up on their letters they had shared over the break.</p><p>The dark-haired man turned to the boys with a scowl heavy on his face as they had suddenly stopped in front of the potions classroom.</p><p>"Professor Slughorn has filled in the position as the potions professor, but I'm sure you'd already known of that Potter," Snape paused to stare directly at Harry, "I find it will be fitting for the both of you to spend the first day cleaning his classroom -- spotless," he dragged out the last word directing his eye contact between the two.</p><p>"Professor please-" Snape's eyes wandered to Harry's, silently stopping the raven-haired boy from the argument he was attempting to make.</p><p>"There will be no talking from either of you," The professor had turned back to walk towards the great hall with his robes flowing behind.</p><p>Harry turned his attention back to Malfoy whose face had relaxed now, his eyes batting around the disheveled room they were about to spend the next few hours in. The blonde ran his fingers through his hair now catching Harry staring at him for more than a second. Harry half expected Malfoy to spit something else out to get onto his nerves, but nothing ever left the blonde's lips.</p><p>They had begun to clean on opposite sides of the classroom, Harry was rinsing used glasses and vials while Draco seemed to be decluttering cabinets. It was awkwardly silent for the longest time, but after a while, Harry had convinced himself that it was more of a comfortable silence shared between the enemies.</p><p>Malfoy was pulling out potion books that seemed to vary in size and shape, sorting them into a pile until he had the whole cabinet cleared. </p><p>A couple of the books had dropped, taking him by surprise, he let out a small yelp. Harry turned to Malfoy for a moment, seeing the blonde flushed with embarrassment for a moment before returning to shoving the glasses back where they seemed to belong.</p><p>Malfoy bent down, lazily glossing his eyes over the two worn-out books. Oddly, they both seemed a little different than the rest, they almost seemed to be once strapped together with string but have separated upon falling to the floor. He set them both on the counter, separate from the others, and continued pulling stuff from the cabinet. </p><p>A shuffling could be heard approaching the room, drawing the attention of Harry and Draco to whoever was about to enter.</p><p>"Oh! Sorry to bother you boys, Harry glad to see you," He paused, turning to Draco with his face scrunched, "Malfoy sir, Draco Malfoy," The blonde reached out his hand to shake the elder man's one. Slughorn nodded his head with the shake of his hand, "I heard Snape put you two up to this, but go on, you're both free to go now," The elder professor waved them towards the door with a grin. </p><p>Draco swiped the two potion books under the arm of his robes, "Thank you, sir."</p><p>Harry nodded to Slughorn on his way out with Malfoy, keeping a distance from the Slytherin at first but then noticing the weird way Malfoy was walking and approached him.</p><p>"What are you doing Malfoy?" Harry made the blonde flinch with the sudden approach and his face twisted.</p><p>"Sod off Potter," Malfoy tucked the books deeper in the pit of his arm when suddenly Harry snatched something from his hand.</p><p>Harry had managed to grab hold of one of the books, quickly frustrating the blonde.</p><p>"Don't touch things that aren't yours, Potter! Give it back you git," Harry had thought for a moment at the almost reverse in roles before flipping through the first few pages of the mysterious book.</p><p>"Property of the Half-Blood Prince..." Malfoy attempted to reach back for the book but Harry kept it just out of reach.</p><p>"Shall we go return these to Professor Slughorn?" Harry had shot Malfoy a mischievous grin, for once he could give the blonde a taste of his own medicine and tease the helpless Slytherin.</p><p>Malfoy's face faltered and his arms went limp for a moment, revealing the other book in his hand to Harry.</p><p>"They're just potion books I found while cleaning," Malfoy avoided Harry's burning eyes that seemed superior. This wasn't like Malfoy at all.</p><p>Harry looked between his book and Malfoy's before relaxing his posture and attitude. "We can just take one then if that's all we'll need," Malfoy rolled his eyes, now regaining some of himself back.</p><p>"Fine," Malfoy hissed out before turning towards where the dungeons would be, leaving Potter to himself now.</p><p>Harry felt almost lost for a moment, forgetting why he was in the middle of the hall until he heard a voice call out to him.</p><p>"Harry? Harry! Where have you been? We've been looking for you everywhere!" Harry turned towards the voice to see Hermione and Ron standing at the end of the hall, out of breath.</p><p>"Sorry I got lost!" Harry called back, walking towards his friends, the book clutched to the side of him protectively.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Don't know when I'll be able to update, I work a lot and have school so yea.. Let me know if you genuinely want me to keep on updating tho. Also sorry if my English is bad I'll try to edit it a little :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. I'm Burnt Out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The halls were lively now with students leaving the great halls to attend to their morning classes or unpack in their dorms.</p><p>"We were worried sick about you -- I mean <em>I</em> was, Ron was too busy stuffing his face like an absolute hog to notice your absence,” Hermione shot a glare towards the ginger whose face scrunched in retaliation. “I did notice thank you, I know Harry can handle himself away from us for more than 5 minutes,” Ron shrugged to Harry who didn't seem to care if they missed him or not. This conversation seemed pointless anyway.</p><p>“Pretty sure that was more than just 5 minutes,” Hermione’s attention was paused when she caught sight of the staircase. "That's odd," Hermione approached where their once common room was. "Did we take a wrong turn?" Ron mumbled, just as confused as Hermione.</p><p>The Gryffindor common room seemed to be missing. The paintings that once decored the wall were torn and the color had been sucked from them.  </p><p>"That's quite strange," The trio had turned towards the delicate voice behind them.</p><p>"Luna," Harry smiled and approached the Ravenclaw.</p><p>"Hello Harry," she nodded, accepting Harry's hug. "What are you doing here?" Hermione questioned, now turning her attention to the blonde.</p><p>"A little bird told me to come here," she looked around as if the bird was flying about in the space they shared.</p><p>Hermione sighed, "Perhaps we should report this to Dumbledore, I've never seen anything like this." </p><p>The trio nodded in agreement while Luna silently followed along.</p><p>Harry began to catch up with Luna about their shared letters, finally giving his time to the blonde who was very invested in helping Harry in any way possible.</p><p>"Harry I must thank you for writing back to me, I was quite worried about you." Luna brushed her hair back, grinning towards the darker haired boy.</p><p>Harry grinned slightly, "Nothing weird has happened yet, but I'll let you know if something does." </p><p>While out of school, Luna had owled Harry about a predicted attack targeted towards the raven-haired boy. At first, he didn’t quite take it seriously but with Malfoy acting suspiciously, he was keeping an eye out for any possible attack from him.</p><p>He paused to think about it, "I should mention that Malfoy has been acting odd," Harry mentioned while watching his two friends ahead of them bicker over something pointless.</p><p>Luna hummed in response.</p><p>"Perhaps he is lonely," she twirled a piece of her hair, "Lonely people tend to act quite odd if you haven't noticed."</p><p>Harry hadn't thought of that, nor did he want to imagine feeling sympathy for Malfoy. "Maybe you're right Luna."</p><p>The three had reached Dumbledore's office, now waving off the Ravenclaw. </p><p>The steps up to Dumbledore’s office were rather large and waxed, the air between the friends was tainted with a thick shared silence. The sounds of their shoes clamping against the waxed steps echoed through the walk-up.</p><p>“Professor Dumbledore?” Hermione called out hesitantly, her eyes flickering between the strange objects on the walls.</p><p>The figure had turned around at his desk, his face sulked in the orange light that barely lit the room.</p><p>“Sir-”</p><p>“Evening gentlemen,” Dumbledore nodded towards the two boys, then turned to Hermione, “Hermione.”</p><p>“How may I assist you three?” Dumbledore carefully rose from his chair, stroking his hand dearly.</p><p>Hermione swallowed deeply and turned to her friends, she wasn’t exactly sure why she was heavily intimidated by asking a question.</p><p>“It seems as though the Gryffindor common room has disappeared,” Harry interrupted, quick to make the conversation haste.</p><p>Dumbledore’s eyebrows crinkled in confusion.</p><p>“Are you sure you went the right way? Did you perhaps get lost?” Dumbledore began to move closer to the children.</p><p>“Positive,” Hermione nodded as they had begun to be led out of his office.</p><p>The grey-bearded wizard walked with them down the hall towards the staircase. Large groups of Gryffindor students were huddled around the fat lady’s painting that seemed to be unoccupied.</p><p>The group approached where the common room would be located, all the paintings around looked to have been empty and lifeless.</p><p>“Professor, you don’t suppose the fat lady was captured and taken elsewhere?” Seamus had turned to Dumbledore with humor behind his question.</p><p>Clearing out the students surrounding the wall, Dumbledore quickly pulled off and set down the paintings to the side to run his hands across the now naked wall.</p><p>“Strange,” He turned swiftly around in a serious manner.</p><p>“It seems that the Gryffindor tower has been cursed,” He ran his hands through his long faded locks.</p><p>A worried Snape and McGonagall stepped into the crowd of students, wavering over them with their height. Dumbledore nodded towards the professors and cleared the room with a loud silence.</p><p>“Gryffindor students will reside in the Slytherin Common room until further sleeping arrangements are discussed and decided,” the Gryffindor students immediately groaned and whined in protest, “Professor Snape will provide further assistance if you would follow him down to the dungeons please.”</p><p>Harry looked over to Snape who seemed to be eyeing him sickly.</p><p>Dumbledore left quickly before any students could grab hold of him and beg for anything else.</p><p>“I would rather sleep on the floor than share a room with any of those Slytherin gits,” Ron was one of the many students to be moaning about the sudden change in rooming arrangements.</p><p>Harry looked to Hermione for her input when she just released a long-held breath, “It’s not a big deal, we should be more concerned about the cursed common room."</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>The blond sucked in a deep breath before collapsing onto his bed. No one was in the bedrooms so he was free to relax for the moment and release any built-up emotion.</p><p>A sudden knock had erupted his relaxation causing him to jolt and face towards the door now.</p><p>"Hey.." A slightly worried Pansy had slowly allowed herself into the room, inching towards her friend.</p><p>Draco rested his head back into the sheets to breathe in the familiar Hogwarts scent that had comforted him since he was 11.</p><p>"What happened?" Pansy could already tell Draco was struggling from the moment they sat down on the Hogwarts Express. Draco mumbled into the sheets for a moment before bringing his head back up to meet with Pansy.</p><p>"<em>Saint Potter</em> is what," Pansy tucked her lips in as if to think on that. </p><p>She began to run her hands through her friend's hair as if to temporarily comfort him. Both of them avoided talking about <em>it</em> but they both knew <em>it</em> played a large role in Draco's 'recent' mental decline. Unfortunately for Draco, Pansy really cared about him and his health.</p><p>"I'm sure if you followed through--he might help you instead," Pansy had lowered her voice, acknowledging Draco now closing his eyes as if he longed to be lulled to sleep.</p><p>"He wouldn't do that for me, he'd probably be embarrassed to be seen aiding me," Draco wished this conversation to be over with, any talk about Harry Potter or the Death Eaters made him feel simply ill.</p><p>Just then several footsteps had erupted through the common room catching both of their attentions. Several hushed and mumbled voices were heard, chattering amongst themselves, very unSlytherin-like. Pansy quickly got up to peer out towards the common room and her mouth went agape at the sight. Draco's stomach dropped as he knew what was happening, he knew that the plan had already started to take place and form.</p><p>It was his duty to take part in it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm pretty much on holiday now so I can focus on things I want to do like writing this :)</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for taking the time to read this garbo &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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